Dylan Rheault views getting released by the Baltimore Orioles organization in 2016 as the best thing to ever happen to him.

“I’ve looked myself in the mirror and said, ‘is this what you really want?’ ” Rheault, 26, told The Star. “I’ve been training hard and training smart. Everything I do there’s a reason for it.”

That training and newfound focus have culminated in a successful run recently for the Garson native, as he is coming off a season in which he pitched for the San Jose Giants (High-A), the Richmond Flying Squirrels (AA) and the Sacramento River Cats (AAA). All three teams are affiliates of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants.

Before the Giants, however, Rheault landed in the independent American Association after being released by the Orioles.

He caught the attention of the Giants’ organization before the 2017 season when he stopped in for a workout at a friend’s facility in Minneapolis.

“He heard I was throwing hard and he told me he’d be able to get some scouts in to see me to throw a bullpen,” Rheault said.

The Giants liked what they saw out of the 6-foot-9, 250-pound pitcher, and Rheault has enjoyed his time within the organization since Day 1.

“They treat us really well, everything has been good and I enjoy all the coaches and upper management,” Rheault said. “Everything is great.”

Rheault wasn’t all that surprised he was released by the Orioles in 2016. But it was a tough pill to swallow. The Orioles drafted Rheault after his redshirt sophomore season with Central Michigan, in Round 19 of the 2013 draft.

“I had two really good seasons with them but the next one was just awful,” said Rheault, a former Lasalle Secondary School student. “My mechanics were bad. My velocity was way down, my mind wasn’t there, so I knew it was coming. They told me they wanted to keep me, but I had been so bad that they couldn’t.

The pitcher said it was “a wake-up call” and something he needed in order to move forward. “I used it as motivation and I realized I wasn’t doing everything I could, that I was wasting an opportunity,” he said. “That opened my eyes. It’s been completely different since then.”

That’s because he now partakes in a revamped throwing program. He focuses his training on mobility, trying to get his body to perform the best that it can.

Rheault didn’t expect the ups and downs his career has had.

“My first year (with the Orioles) was great and I thought I would just take off,” he said. “The next year was the same thing. I was an all-star, made it to High-A and I was pretty young, so I just thought I’d keep going up and up, but then I got a slap in the face and it changed my perspective.”

It changed for the better, he insists. It’s what led Rheault to that bullpen session and to the Giants signing him.

“It’s another opportunity,” Rheault said. “At the end of the day, if you’re good enough to pitch in the major leagues, you’re going to. Obviously, it makes it easier being in an affiliated (team). It means a lot. It shows me I still have a chance and that all the work I put in was worth it. Now it’s about achieving the ultimate goal, which is the major leagues.”

Rheault said youngsters in baseball in Sudbury can look to his story as inspiration.

“I know baseball is growing up there but I can be an example that it is possible to make it in anything out of there,” Rheault said. “When I was growing up, there wasn’t much baseball going on there.”

That has changed however, he said, thanks to the help of local baseball guru Jean-Gilles Larocque.

“He’s doing a really, really good job up there to grow the game,” Rheault said. “I talk to him frequently.”

It’s harder to make it from Sudbury, “but there’s a way to do it,” he said. “You can’t use the excuse of living in Sudbury and not having a chance. Now, there’s a way.”